I am in the UK and I regularly record music and spoken word programmes from the radio to a cassette for later playback (I am 'downloading' stuff if you like). This is quite free and, as far as I know, quite legal.

What is the legal DIFFERENCE between this type of recording and downloading stuff via the internet to a PC?

I mention my UK residence as the law may be radically different elsewhere.As a general rule of thumb, if it's free, it's illegal. The "fair use" provisions enshrined in UK intellectual property law permit the recording of a broadcast solely for the purpose of viewing at a more convenient time. Once viewed/listened to, the recording should then be erased/deleted. You may find >this summary< useful.

A download from the internet will not necessarily consitute a broadcast under UK I.P. law, If it does, the above will apply to that download.

Hope this helps.Thanks for replies -

The link to UK Copyright Service was useful, my cassette recordings being 'acts that are allowed'.

It seems to me that the definition of 'broadcasts' is a bit in question. Is radio via Broadband a broadcast or is it something different? The vast majority of downloaded pop music must be for later playback and eventual erasure, to say nothing of the countless video clips we are invited to download.

Anyway, thanks again.Broadcast typically refers to a single item/stream being sent/scattered in many directions simultaneously. Contrast this with a music download sent to a single user as a response to a request by that user. That does not constitute a broadcast.I see what you MEAN about individual specific requests for download items - I suppose that artistic ownership of the material is a factor, as with CDs BOUGHT over the shop counter.

Radio programmes, however, whether spoken word or music (pop or CLASSICAL) that can be received on computers via Broadband seem to me to be fair game for legal downloading - they are broadcast to anyone who cares to listen.

I confess that I have no experience of downloading anything except software, so I may be talking a load of codswallop, but I would have thought that radio via Broadband (hundreds of stations, home and abroad) was how most of the ipod and mp3 recordings are made.

My inteest has been prompted by the recent news that a big music ownership company will soon be offering it's wares free.Quote

As a general rule of thumb, if it's free, it's illegal.

Radio programmes, however, whether spoken word or music (pop or classical) that can be received on computers via Broadband seem to me to be fair game for legal downloading - they are broadcast to anyone who cares to listen.